The first genetic linkages among expressed regions of the garlic genome

Abstract

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) has been cultivated by asexual propagation since time immemorial. The discovery of male-fertile garlic accessions has opened a venue for genetic studies and improvement through sexual recombination. An S1 family of 84 plants was generated from a single male-fertile heterozygous plant from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Plant Introduction 540316 and used to identify the first genetic linkages in garlic based on single nucleotide polymorphisms, simple sequence repeats, and randomly amplified polymorphic DNAs. Thirty-seven markers formed nine linkage groups covering 415 centimorgans (cM) with average distance of 15 cM between loci; other 16 loci remained unlinked. A male fertility locus was placed on the map. This first genetic map of garlic is a seminal step toward the genetic improvement of garlic and eventual marker-assisted breeding.